October 4, 2024 by Spencer Pomoty

The Edmonton Oilers Rookies dropped all three of their games at the 2024 Young Stars Classic in Penticton. Not only did fail to pick up a single victory, the Oilers Rookies only managed to score one goal in nine periods of hockey.

Few players really stood out to me at the annual prospect tournament this year, but some players had good moments. We also have to keep in mind that the Oilers only had one drafted defenceman, Max Wanner, in Penticton, while the other five were all camp invites.

Who Stood Out?

The newly acquired Matt Savoie was easily the Oilers Rookie’s best player throughout the tournament. Savoie and 2024 first-round pick Sam O’Reilly were starting to mold extremely well together in their short time together. The St. Albert, Alberta native was excellent on the forecheck, he forced a turnover and made a great pass to set up Carl Berglund’s goal against the Calgary Flames Rookies. In the same game, Savoie made an excellent move on the Flames ninth-overall pick Zayne Parekh, using his triangle against him, attacking Parekh with speed and putting the puck under his stick then dishing a backhand pass to O’Reilly for a high-danger scoring chance. He was dominant in that outing, but it only resulted in the one point.

Max Wanner was the one defender who could get things rolling in transition and helping his team in the offensive zone. The former Moose Jaw Warrior was showing his continued growth and comfortability with the puck on his stick as he was activating constantly from the blue line and joining in the rush as the weakside defenceman. Even under pressure, Wanner was able to connect on passes in his own zone and make it easier for his forwards. O’Reilly also had a strong tournament. Considering he’s still just 18, his defensive game is very polished. He stays above his man and it allows for the defenceman to be aggressive because he can cover for them if the puck gets chipped by them or if they get beat in anyway. The London Knights’ centre has a great tendency to come low on routes to try and be an option for the defenceman in the middle of the ice on breakouts. O’Reilly made an excellent one-touch backhand pass to Savoie that resulted in a good chance on net. I do believe additional work on his skating will benefit him massively in the long run, but the mechanics are solid.

The other London Knight who was selected in the seventh-round of this year’s draft also had a strong tournament. William Nicholl stood out with his skating and effort on the forecheck as well as the backcheck, but he also made some excellent plays with the puck on his stick. Nicholl’s usage of linear crossovers to attack defenceman and gain speed is textbook. His decision-making while moving at the speed he moves is also impressive, he doesn’t have any other standout tools, but he has a great base to work with and I thought he was the teams third-best forward in this tournament. He was the extra attacker in the Winnipeg Jets game when the Oilers Rookies were down by two and pulled the goalie, he started all games on the third line, and I think being put out in that situation says a ton about how his tournament went.

The power-play stood out because of how poor it was. A unit with Matvey Petrov and Savoie sounds like it should be a nightmare for younger players, but it was the opposite of that. The first unit failed to sustain any sort of pressure against all three other teams at Penticton. I didn’t like the usage of Savoie as he was the middle bumper player, but his strength is on either flank making plays cross ice or using his sneaky shot. I was looking for way more out of this unit and they left me wanting way more out of them.

The second line of Petrov, Dalyn Wakely, and James Stefan also underperformed in my eyes, especially because they are all older players, and Petrov has pro games under his belt. The trio was outperformed by the third line and didn’t get anything offensively in this tournament. Wakely was the strongest out of the three and put in some good work on the PK, but the other former Battalion, Petrov, still hasn’t added much to his off-puck game. I will say though that this defensive core didn’t help much at all and it’s hard to just rely solely on the forwards to create everything offensively.

The Depth of The Defensive Pipeline

I’ll keep this as short as I can, but this organization needs to spend draft assets next year on adding prospect defenseman and some that have some sort of offensive dynamic play ability. Beau Akey was injured and unable to play in the tournament, Luca Munzenberger is strictly a defensive defenseman, Albin Sundin leans to be more of a defence first player, but I do like what I saw from him in the transition game, and Nikita Yevseyev has impressed me with some of the dynamic ability he can bring to the game.

The depth of the defensive pipeline is not strong right now, and rightfully so, because the big club has spent assets on trying to win a Stanley Cup in 2025, but this was a glaring hole in all three games, and CEO Jeff Jackson surely knows this as well. The positive is that Edmonton’s top defensive prospects are both right-handed in Wanner and Akey. It’s easier to find a left-shot defenceman, and I believe they need to get one that can upstart the offence and make it easier on the forwards.

I will have new articles out soon with the 2024-25 WHL season underway. You can follow me for more WHL content on X.com @SPProspects.